Uncle Milton's Ant Farm
MEMORIES:
GodofPoo remembers...this was a "scam" to get you/your parents onto their mailing list, which they sold around the country to various ... More »
Posted on 09/22/06
Manufacturer:
Cashing in on the childhood thrill of catching, say, a caterpillar, dumping it in a shoebox, tossing in some leaves, and watching with excitement as the caterpillar interacts with its “natural environment,” Uncle Milton’s Ant Farm was an interactive window into the fascinating world of ants. Where do ants go after they make off with your picnic crumbs? Now the mystery is revealed in a specially-designed plastic box, complete with special “Clean Tunneling Sand.”
This combo toy/science experiment was dreamed up in the 1950’s by Milton Levine at – where else? – a family Fourth of July picnic in southern California’s San Fernando Valley. Watching the ants do their thing, Milton was reminded of his time spent on his uncle’s farm as a boy, and his entrepreneurial spirit led him to realize other people might be just as fascinated by the little guys as he was. Levine’s family-run company is still located in southern California.
How did it work? You purchased the ant farm, and then sent away for its small inhabitants. Once they arrived (only to the US and Canada, to the dismay of ant-lovers in other parts of the globe), you filled the box with the sand and dropped in the ants. Then you can sit back and watch the little buggers dig tunnels, build bridges, and make caves, fortified with the supplied food and eye-dropper for water. Of course, it’s always fun to have ant taste-tests as well – dropping in cookie crumbs, bread crusts, and soda-pop were good experiments to see what ants preferred to eat. And any concern mom might have about keeping bugs in her house was eased by the marketing terms “break-resistant” and “escape proof,” as well as the positioning of the farms as “educational toys,” often sold in museums and teacher supply stores.
Uncle Milton was definitely on to something. Over fifteen million farms have been sold, and an award-winning board game was based on the original toy, where players are ants navigating through chambers to collect baby ants and bring them back to the Queen. In addition, the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair featured a giant walk-through model of the farm, and the 1965 New York World’s Fair had a twelve-foot Plexiglas model. The original green-framed, clear plastic Ant Farm branched out to Giant Farms, Mini Farms, Ant Islands, and the modular Antvilles, if you want to turn your ant neighborhood into a city.
